Have you read any of these books? What are you favorites? Do you think they should have been banned or challenged?

For information about Banned Books Week and Celebrating our Freedom to Read, check out http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek or http://bannedbooksweek.org/.

The American Library Association has also created an interactive timeline to highlight some of the books that have been challenged or banned in the past 3o years. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/timeline30-years-liberating-literature

If you are interested in reading any of the books, visit your local branch library or request them with your Boston Public Library card (or OneCards or any Massachusetts library cards registered at the Boston Public Library) on the online BPL Catalog.

Celebrate your freedom to read what you want to read!! Yay!!

What do  you think were the top books written for teens in the last year?

CLICK HERE to go to the official ballot page and cast your vote!

Voting is only open for teens (age 12-18) – this is a Teen’s Choice Award! The books you can vote for were all nominated by members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country.

Voting closes today,  Sept. 17, 2010. Winners will be announced in a webcast at www.ala.org/teenstopten during Teen Read Week, Oct. 17-23 that we’ll link to from this blog as well.

Here are the books on the list,  NOW GO VOTE!

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Fire by Kristin Cashore
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
The Roar by Emma Clayton
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
Dragonfly by Julia Golding
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Witch and Wizard by James Patterson
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
City of Fire by Laurence Yep

This year’s award was given to Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan: Blake’s life is way too complicated. He’s a sophomore in high school with a girlfriend and a friend who is a girl. One of them loves him. One of them needs him. Can he please them both?

Finalists this year were:

• Ash by Malinda Lo: Consumed with grief after the death of her father, Ash’s only escape from her harsh life and cruel stepmother comes from re-reading the fairy tales that her mother once told her and hoping against hope that the fairies will appear to her. When the fairy Sidhean appears, Ash hopes that he will steal her away to his enchanted world; but when she meets the King’s Huntress, Kaisa, she realizes that staying in her own realm can also lead to beauty, romance, and perhaps even love.
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl: Sixteen-year-old Ethan has lived all his life in Gaitlin, South Carolina, a town that hasn’t changed much since the Civil War. While coping with the loss of his mother, a father who spends all of his time in his study, and high school, his world turns upside down with the arrival of Lena, a new girl with whom he seems to share a psychic connection. As they grow closer, Ethan discovers that Lena and her family share a dark secret and that she is headed for doom on her sixteenth birthday.
• The Everafter by Amy Huntley: Maddy is a ghost, surrounded by things she lost when she was alive. By touching these objects, she relives the episodes in her life where she lost them. Even though Maddy’s dead, she explores the lessons these objects hold — and why are they still important. AND
• hold still by Nina LaCour: After Caitlin’s best friend Ingrid commits suicide, Caitlin has a hard time making sense of the loss. She finds Ingrid’s journal and slowly allows herself to read it and learn about why Ingrid felt the need to end her life. Caitlin also grapples with allowing herself to find another friend, to let in a boyfriend, and to understand why her favorite teacher is ignoring her. It is the haunting story of dealing with loss, moving on, and finding peace and hope.

BPL created an adult book list with some great titles (Latino Life 2009). You can see it online by clicking on the picture.

We’re created a list with some of our favorite Hispanic books for and about teens. Here are a few samples: